5 Lessons We Learned From Al and Tipper Gore’s Separation

While “celeb” splits are more the rule than the exception these days, this one makes us particularly sad. After that long, lovey smooch at the 2000 Democratic presidential convention, the duo practically became the poster children for marital passion.

The Gores told friends they “grew apart” after 40 years of marriage, carving out separate lives while the former vice president was frequently on the road, two longtime close associates and family friends told the Associated Press.

“Their lives had gotten more and more separated,” one of the associates said.

There were hiccups along the way, but they were very, very minor. In a 2000 interview, Tipper said Al once gave her a Weedeater for her birthday, but had learned to be more sensitive over the years.

“He’s very much a gentleman you know, with me around the house,” Tipper said. “I know he’s dog tired and he could be sitting down and doing something and I need something across the room, he’ll get up and get it.”

They also knew how to have fun … together. On Halloween, Al and Tipper Gore would dress up in costume and greet trick-or-treaters who made their way to the vice president’s mansion.

Over the years, Al appeared to be smitten, referring to his wife as “someone I’ve loved with my whole heart since the night of my high school senior prom” and “my beloved partner in life.”

Since it seems like Al and Tipper did everything right, we dug up SELF’s best marriage advice to safeguard our own marriages 40 years from now.

1. Remember to dream together

“We dreamed from the beginning, when we mapped out
honeymoons we could not afford. …The dreams involve our children, our careers,
our hobbies, our desires for adventure.”

The capacity to dream together can be the “connective
tissue” holding a couple together throughout struggles and disappointment,wrote Martha McPhee in an excerpt from “The Honeymoon’s Over: True Stories of
Love, Marriage and Divorce.”